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Reviews by Vitrugo

68

Maybe in the near Future this game will be great

Maybe I was expecting too much out of this game, a kind of siritual sucessor to Alpha Centaury.
Maybe Firaxis should have launched a polished game instead of teasing us with this unfinished, DLC craving game.
Maybe...

Beeing a huge Civilization fan since Civ 2, it pains me deeply puting the "tumbs down" on Beyond Earth like this. But recommending this game at his current state wouldn´t be fair. It would be complacent with the gaming developers of today that think its fair to release one third of a AAA title on full price and continuously baiting us for DLC´s and expantions until finaly we get a fairly decent game worthy of that name.

Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth is not a bad game, it´s a decent game that you can enjoy a couple of playtroughs. But that is not what we expect from a Firaxis title, and specialy from the sequel of the best turn based game of all time. It´s just...bland. One of the most common things most players have to say about this game is that it feels like a reskined version of Civ V, and to be honest, it could´t be more accurate.

BE does a good job in keeping most of the fun aspects of it´s predecessor but it feels too much like a dumbed down version of it. It lacks charisma, depth and artistic value. The new leaders are all basicaly the same, they don´t have personality or the different bonus and limitations that the SMAC or Civ V leaders used to have that made interesting piking a specific leader for your kind of playstyle. Basically you can adapt them to your own liking, making every playtrough feel the same. All the units and cities look exactly the same, only changing when you start to choose your Affinity path.

The new Affinity System brings a fresh way to play Civ and is the only interesting one to be fair. You can choose from Supremacy, Harmony and Purity and each one of them will shape your faction both visually and strategically, depending on your views on the future of Mankind and its role on this new planet. The new satelite layer brings an interesting new strategic option, Stations are not a worty substitute of the City States, they lack diplomatic options and they bring no new adition to your strategy, you can only trade with them in return of a few sum of energy. Virtues are the equivalent of Social Policies of Civ V and affect your faction in the same maner. Happiness is now Health and Gold is now energy. Starting to see a patern here?

So many interesting aspect were left behind that I can only suspect that hopefully they will be implemented in the near future (at a price of a small expantion pack of course).
Right now, at it´s current state, Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth does not deserve a worthy recommendation and a thumbs up, but then again, when Civilization V was released it was in a much worse state than this and it managed to grow into a full awesome experience when it got it´s GOTY edition. If you´re not a HUGE fan of Civilization, stay away from it like it was miasma.

Oh I forgot about miasma...Remember that fungus from SMAC? Damn it, there´s that pattern again!

55

A Nasty Fokker

What seemed like a good idea turned out to have a poor execution. Dated graphics, simplistic menus, bad animations...you name it. It could be excusable if the gameplay was good but its not. It looks like what it is; a port from a phone game but with the price range of almost 5€. It doesn´t even worth the 75cents I actually paid for with all the discounts. The worst thing with Sid Meier´s name on it.

78

Rome wasn't debugged in a day

Rushing games hurts everyone; it hurts the gamer´s experience, sales plumit but distributors and software houses still think it will be a good idea to launch a unfinished game into the market. Creative Assembly usualy doesn´t disappoint it´s fans but this year´s new Total War title came with a few issues that almost ruined the game for everyone.
Visually its gorgeous, its definitely the most polished game in the series; the mediterranean scenery is full of life and detail and contributes to an imersive experience but it come with a high price; only the most powerfull machines out there will run Rome in its full glory without lagging. Pretty graphics alone don´t make a good game and its in everything else that Rome 2 starts to show it´s flaws; Stability issues and random crashes, texture problems and the enemy A.I. that most of the times is simply...dumb,
Despite all its flaws on release, Rome 2 still has room for improvement, hopefully new patches, add ons and DLC´s will bring glory to, not only Rome, but to the Total War franchise as well.

71

It's a bughunt

Nowadays games shouldn´t be judged only by they're release version; they are upgraded, improved, and sometimes become something completly different from what they started. Upon release, ACM was basicaly an unfinished product, having nothing to do with the game that was promissed years earlier from the tech demos. After a few patches gigantic patches, Gearbox managed to turn the bland inicial experience into something that could be enjoyable. But besides the good atmosfere, there are still too many broken elements that can´t save this game from beeing a miss; the story still lacks continuity from the Aliens movie and the multiplayer its still unplayable.

97

Improving Perfection

Since it was released in late 2010, Firaxis latest instalement in the Civilization series has been improving until it finally reached a point where its possible to say its the best turn based strategy game ever designed. First with Gods & Kings and the scenario packs introduced new units, buildings, wonders, religion and espionage, but now with Brave New Word comes so many new elements that enhance the gameplay experience (specialy in the late game) that its almost possible to consider it as a new game itself. Nine new Civilizations, eight Wonders, eight buildings, twenty units, two scenarios, new gameplay mechanics such as trade routes, ideologies, the World Congress, an improved Cultural Victory including Tourism and Archaeology. Playing Civilization V without this expansion will simply be impossible.